No Sign Of Stolen Light Aircraft

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32213, 4 February 1970, Page 1

No Sign Of Stolen Light Aircraft

(.New Zealand Preis Association) DUNEDIN, February 3. Police this evening were still searching as best they could for an aircraft which was taken from Taieri airfield early this morning and would have run out of fuel—in the morning.

The aircraft, a two-seater Cessna 150, is believed to have been flown by a 19-year-old youth, described by police as slightly over 6ft tall, of slim build with fair hair and complexion.

The youth has logged about 70 hours flying time, but does not hold a private pilot’s licence. Police all over Southland and at Halfmoon Bay. Stewart Eland, were watching for the missing plane, but it was not sighted. The stolen plane is believed to have flown south from Dunedin. A farmer saw a similar aircraft flying south at Greenfield, near Salclutha, about 6 a.m. Police believe It was the same aircraft. The $B5OO Cessna, owned by

the Otago Aero Club, carried fuel for perhaps two hours and a half flying, or about 200-250 miles. Results of police inquiries have suggested it took off at 5.50 a.ra, which means it should have run out of fuel shortly after 8 a.m. A connecting door between the hangar housing the aircraft and the club’s office was smashed and three lifejackets taken. Constable V. Crookshanks, of Halfmoon Bay, Stewart Island, said tonight there were , only “two or three" beaches on the island where a land-

plane could be put down safely. “And it would need a skilled pilot to do it, not a novice," he said. The island’s fishing boats bad seen no sign of a plane on any of the beaches, but a light aircraft had flown over Halfmoon Bay about 11 a.m. “But this fellow would have been down long before then." The missing Cessna 150 has a tricycle undercarriage. “If this boy is down in the interior of the island it could take weeks to find him, and the chances are there wouldn’t be much left to find. The bush is dynamite.” Aero club officers say the Cessna was capable of accommodating three people at a squeeze. But Chief Detective J. A. Marshall, of the Dunedin C. 1.8., who is heading the investigation, said there was no reason to think that the pilot took any passengers with him. The Cessna was found to be missing from its hangar just after 7 a.m. by a club instructor, Mr M. Paulin. The club’s chief instructor, Mr R. E. W. Burns, said the youth believed to be flying the plane was familiar with the layout of the premises. He knew where the keys of the fuel pumps were kept, and how to switch the power on.

He chose not to refuel the aircraft, although with a full tank it has a range of between 400 and 500 miles. Mr Marshall said this suggested that the pilot considered he had enough fuel to get to a selected destination. Senior-Sergeant L. F. Franklin, of Invercargill police, said tonight there was no point in organising a search for the missing pilot until there was a firm idea of where he had gone. An air search at present would have to cover such a large area that the expense involved would be great and the chance of success small. Any request for a search would have to come from Dunedin police investigating the disappearance, Mr Franklin said.